"Left-wing terrorism": A bogus conspiracy theory gains momentum

Yes, there's more Evil Brett crap going around, and all of the right-wing blogs are doing their best to create hysteria. Michelle Malkin is in high dudgeon mode, caterwauling about "the crucial battle between truth-telling bloggers versus convicted bomber Brett Kimberlin and his band of malicious online thugs."

What band of online thugs?

If this band exists, why won't Memeorandum link to their writings or websites -- y'know, just to give us curious folks an idea of how thuggish these thugs can get? Memeorandum links to pretty much everyone -- to Malkin, to all of the Breitbarters, and even to my humble self. Alas, we see no links providing a single example of Kimberlin-loving online thuggery in action.

Nevertheless, Malkin assures us that those thugs are out there somewhere, scuttling about in the criminal night. They must exist. Michelle Malkin wouldn't lie to us, would she?

In their crazed zeal to push this meme, the Breitbarters have brought in some fairly heavy hitters: Hermann Cain, Glenn Beck, the National Review, and now Congressman Kenny Marchant and Senator Saxby Chambliss. All of them are screaming about a conspiracy that, as far as I can determine, does not exist.

Everything started when a couple of right-wing bloggers asserted (without presenting objective evidence) that they were SWATted -- that is, targeted by fake 911 calls to the cops. (The timing of those incidents was pretty suspicious, as discussed in previous posts.) Even if we stipulate that these SWATs took place as described, so far I've seen no evidence linking Brett Kimberlin -- an unlikable Charlie Nobody with a serious rap sheet -- to the events. Nevertheless, the rightwingers keep shouting that he is the mastermind of a left-wing terror conspiracy. When a claim receives endless repetition, it begins to seem true.

The ancient question Cui Bono? tells you who really did the deed. Nobody on the left could possibly benefit from such an inane and otiose stunt. The benefit to the right is obvious: They get to play "martyrella" (as one of my former ladyfriends might have put it). James O'Keefe, Breitbart's private spook, is on record as favoring "false flag" attacks.

More recently, a little-known blogger named Aaron Walker, who had relentlessly promoted this nonsense about The Great Kimberlin Conspiracy, was punished by a Maryland court for violating a restraining order. To the right-wing nutcases, the judge's decision proves that the Great Kimberlin Conspiracy is so immensely powerful that it controls the justice system.

The best summary of this nonsense is on The Moderate Voice.

Earlier, I told you about the manufactured scheiss-sturm about somebody nobody has ever heard of by … THE ENTIRE RIGHTIE BLOGOSMEAR. (“The Ghouls of May“)

And now, we find the interesting spectacle of no major media having picked up the kerfluffing of a self-manufactured kerfuffle, so the Breitbarts, the Malkins and the rest of the flying monkey corps have pressed two members of congress into service...

Behind the scenes, a couple of other liberal-ish bloggers -- better known and more influential than I -- have kept an eye on the Breitbarters and their surreal theatricals. They are unsure as to when, if ever, would be the right time to speak. Although these "bigger" bloggers agree that, right now, it would be best not to give Malkin and co. further publicity, there is a general sense that the rightists are up to something sinister.

Their actions are simply too coordinated. There must be a plan.

(For all of their caterwauling about the dangers of "collectivism," the Breitbarters know the value of concerted action. Have you ever heard anyone other than a conservative say "There's no I in Team?")

So what's the endgame? In the words of the Moderate Voice writer: "The teapot grows ever more tempesty. But WHY this. And WHY now?"

In part, this bizarre campaign seems designed to create the impression that Kimberlin-allied terrorists killed Andrew Breitbart. And they call me a conspiracy theorist! 

But I will posit an even darker scenario.

(Before I do, this warning: What follows is speculative. We all know the double standard at work in our society: Breitbarters and Fox Newsers are allowed to spew conspiracy theories relentlessly, while liberals may never do likewise. Therefore, if you wish to be considered a serious personage, you are well-advised to offer a pro-forma denunciation of that bastard Cannon and his irresponsible, paranoid ways.)

Suppose -- just suppose -- that tomorrow you wake up and the headlines tell you that a Big Bad went down. We're talking about a big Big Bad: Falling airplanes. Toppling buildings. The electric grid goes kablooey. Whatever.

Al Qaeda doesn't cut it as a bogeyman anymore. Everyone knows that the group has been rendered nearly impotent.

Moreover, everyone knows that people like Michelle Malkin want to live in a world where left-wing writers are suspected, interrogated, rounded-up, spied upon, imprisoned. Ann Coulter once said that conservatives need "...to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed, too. Otherwise, they will turn out to be outright traitors."

Malkin and the Breitbarters are creating the foundation for that kind of concerted anti-left action. "The Kimberlin conspiracy" is a scarecrow designed to frighten the gullible. But in the hysteria following a major terrorist incident, that scarecrow will look more animated than Ray Bolger ever did, and it will seem a lot more threatening.

If that's the intended outcome, then the better-known liberal scribblers have to find some way to talk about this bizarre -- but brilliantly coordinated -- operation.